Narratives of two families exposed to the Great Plague of London, A.D. 1665 : with conversations on religious preparation for pestilence. / Republished, with notes and observations, by John Scott.

  • Defoe, Daniel, 1661?-1731.
Date:
1832
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Narratives of two families exposed to the Great Plague of London, A.D. 1665 : with conversations on religious preparation for pestilence. / Republished, with notes and observations, by John Scott. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    terrible enough when it came, but that to be always in a fright about it, was to make it a judgment while it was no judgment, and the like : in a word, like her sister preachers, Mary Magdalen and the other women, her words seemed to them as idle tales. (Lukexxiv.il.) “ However, as a truly aifectionate mother, she continued her monitory discourses to them. ‘ You, sons/ said she, ‘ are grown up, and are above my admonition as a mother ; but you cannot be out of the reach of exhor- tation, and you ought not to take it amiss that I press you to prepare for the dreadful time of a visitation, in case it should come.’ ‘ No, madam,’ said the eldest son, ‘ none of your children will take it amiss ; but we think you make your company, which was always pleasant to us, to be a little melan- choly, for that you are always upon this frightful subject. I doubt it is too much upon your mind, and makes you heavy- hearted when you might be cheerful.’ Thus their discourse began.